Late last year the Ministry of Science, Technology and Telecommunications (MICITT) in conjunction with Aprender Haciendo (Learn Doing) announced that Costa Rica would be hosting the 14th edition of the World Robot Olympiad November 10 to the 12th.

The event is now confirmed and scheduled for these dates at Parque Viva in La Guácima, Alajuela; this is the first time that this event will be held in a nation out of the Asian continent.

In preparation for the World Robot Olympiad, 750 participants ages 6 through 25 took part of the National Robot Olympiad this past weekend, an activity organized by the MICITT with the purpose of selecting the group that will represent the country in November.

Costa Rica will have a representation of eight groups in different categories and these will go up against representations of 65 countries. The categories are: Regular A 9-12 years old; Regular B 13-15 years old; Regular C 16-19 years-of-age; Open A 6-12 years old; Open B 13-15 years; Open C 16-19 years-old; Soccer Category and finally the University Category.

In the National Olympiad projects included challenges such as creating a robot that could detect the access of tourists to restricted areas within a natural park or protected area, this was the task assigned to the groups of children 6-12. For those 13-15 years of age, they had to analyze the carbon emissions of two companies and find a way to mitigate with the use of a robot the effects of the same; the group of participants 16-19 had to develop a turbine that operates with the force of the wind to generate electricity.

The college group, with more experience, had to create a robot that could solve the Tetris game, the robot had to be capable of picking up pieces and placing them on a screen simulating a video game session.

The topic of this year’s World Robot Olympiad is Robots for Sustainability inspired in Costa Rica’s unique biodiversity and natural resources.